Hackers target UN website, post anti-war message

UNITED NATIONS: Hackers struck the United Nations Internet site in the weekend replacing the Secretary General's message with anti-war slogans, prompting the world body to deploy its technicians to assess the system and take steps to make the portal more secure.

The hackers breached the security early Sunday replacing Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's messages on the web pages reserved for him with anti-war slogan in red capital letters and accusing the US and Israel of killing children.

The world body removed the messages promptly as its computer experts evaluated if any damage was done and taking action to make the site more secure, the UN said but released only limited information.

UN spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters yesterday that the hackers' messages were removed and updating of the site suspended as technicians assessed the situation. But she also said that key financial information was not compromised.

Also attacked were sites of UN Economic and Social Council and the Paris-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

"Hacked By kerem125 M0sted and Gsy That is CyberProtest Hey Ysrail and Usa dont kill children and other people Peace for ever No war" was the line repeating itself over and over on the affected pages, according to screenshots taken by bloggers and quoted by CNET, a computer and technology publisher.

CNET said the perpetrators appear to have used a well-known and highly preventable technique called SQL injection, which takes advantage of flawed database programming to activate malicious lines of code.